Tuna ranchers seek future in San Diego

Tuna ranching off the coast of Baja California is big business for Umami Sustainable Seafood, which recently set up its international headquarters in San Diego. Large pens contain the fish while they mature for markets in places such as Japan. — Karl Petur Jonsson/Umami

Tuna ranching off the coast of Baja California is big business for Umami Sustainable Seafood, which recently set up its international headquarters in San Diego. Large pens contain the fish while they mature for markets in places such as Japan.
/ Karl Petur Jonsson/Umami

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Three decades after San Diego’s famed tuna industry crumbled, an Icelandic entrepreneur is attempting to rebuild the city as a world tuna capital.

Unlike tuna fishers of the 20th Century, Oli Steindorsson isn’t pinning his hopes on the wild harvest of northern bluefin. Instead, his company recently purchased a major tuna farm in Baja California and established its corporate headquarters in a high-rise near Little Italy.

From the 11th floor, Steindorsson can see San Diego Bay, once home to the tuna fleet, and dream about expanding his business into Southern California waters. Today, domestic ocean aquaculture is tangled in red tape, but the Obama administration is rewriting the rules to encourage the development of fish farms.

Umami Sustainable Seafood

• Reported sales of $42 million for 2,200 metric tons of bluefin tuna for the latest quarter

• Has about 400 employees in San Diego, Baja California and Croatia

• Runs Kali Tuna, a large tuna farm in the Adriatic Sea

• Purchased Baja Aqua Farms in Baja California last year

• Is traded over-the-counter as UMAM

“This used to be the tuna capital of the world, and what is more appropriate than relocating here because of that,” said Steindorsson, chief executive of Umami Sustainable Seafood. “The hope is that one day we will be allowed to copy and paste these production (techniques) from the Mexico waters into the U.S. waters.”

If his plans work, Umami would be well-positioned to revive a type of commercial fishing in San Diego, provide jobs on the water and feed U.S. customers sushi-grade seafood.

Even if it doesn’t, Umami plans to expand operations near Ensenada and begin breeding the giant fish in captivity, a delicate venture that has yet to be done on a commercial scale. Once achieved, it would allow Umami to minimize ocean harvest, cut fishing costs and reduce pressure on wild stocks of tuna, some of which have been severely overfished.

“This is big business to these guys. They are like the General Electric of seafood,” said Don Kent, president of the nonprofit Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute in Mission Bay.

Like many with ties to the ocean, he bemoans the demise of the San Diego tuna industry and wants to see sea ranching grow so it provides more high-protein meals to Americans.

“Mexico has said this is important,” said Kent, who has collaborated on research with Umami. “We are still having the debate here. In the meantime, we just keep importing more and more seafood.”

Worldwide, aquaculture is expected to account for an increasing share of fish consumption because of concerns about overharvesting wild seafood. The United States has lagged behind other countries in marine aquaculture, and a major policy question is whether the nation should import more farmed fish or increase domestic production.

While aquaculture has an up side, it’s not trouble-free and environmental groups disagree about how big of a role it should play. Concerns include the spread of disease among fish in proximity, escape of hatchery fish and the buildup of fish feces.